Schedule maintenance ?!? $$

I voted "agree", meaning I agree with your poll question "schedule maintenance?"

But, I disagree with your argument. Aren't you forgetting some obvious items? brake pads, air filters, tire rotations, new tires when necessary? And general inspections to discover things like loose bolts, rusted mufflers, and burned out light bulbs are, in fact, "maintenance". Even a Toyota, arguably the most reliable brand of vehicle, has hundreds of moving parts subject to wear.

I think you are confusing preventive maintenance with corrective maintenance. Toyotas have a reputation for reliability because they require less corrective corrective maintenance. The preventive maintenance is still a good idea and necessary. Granted, much of the preventive maintenance is truly dependent upon driving conditions, which vary by driver, terrain, road conditions, climate, and loading.

 

I agree with carz89. I voted agree also but there is more to do then just changing the oil every 5k mi. Filters ect. need to be tended too.

 

alanwagen, are you complaining about *Toyota* scheduled maintenance, the items shown in the Scheduled Maintenance Guide? They cost almost nothing. It sounds like you're actually complaining about some *dealer's* X Miles Service Packages. Big difference. One can get serviced, all right :_>

 

:welcome: Welcome to PriusChat alanwagen!
You'll want to follow the recommended 5000 mile interval maintenance in the Passport that came with your Prius to maintain your Toyota warranty. As others have said, it's mostly oil and filter changes with minor inspections. Cheap insurance that your car will keep running well.

You certainly don't need to line the dealer's pockets with unnecessary expenditures. You may want to peruse the Knowledge Base for a good thread on "What you need" and what you don't.

 

I too disagree with your arguments. As mentioned there are very few things that you actually need to do to this car until you hit 100,000 miles.

I have already had the dealer try to get me on a few extra things that really, imo, are not necessary. One of them being a rear brake adjustment. This car has self adjusting brakes and I know I have (nor my father) never adjusted rear brakes and manage to get excellent wear and stopping ability.

The dealer also tried to get me to change the engine and cabin air filters early, at 15,000 miles, when they obviously were not dirty. I do 95% highway driving so I could probably get much more than 30,000 miles out of them, but will still change them at 30,000. These items can be purchased from your local autoparts for around $30 or $40 (iirc) combined or from rockauto.com for around $20 or $25 combined, prior to shipping, rather than the $100 that the dealer charges to install them. No, they are not Toyota Genuine Parts, but they are name brand, Wix, Beck Arnley, etc.

 

Look the service dept makes money for the dealership. They inspect the car to find things that they will try to sell you. For example, they will check your brakes for ware and will tell you if you need new brakes and tires. So, when you get a oil change they're going to check things out to try and sell you the service.
I'm not saying that you should ignore the advice but if you change the cabin filter yourself and the air filter you don't need them to do it for you.
More complicated repairs like the brakes ect. require a trained tech so here is where a good dealership is necessary.
The bottom line is to find a dealership whom you have confidence in and is not trying to sell you unnecessary service. The key is to get a good service writer who gets to know you and your car. When you schedule a service go to that writer and he or she will take care of you.
FishHawk

 

if they changed the oil change interval to 10k miles, they shouldnt have kept the 5k useless interval in there..the tires would do fine being rotated at 10k miles.